


Deerstalker

by MidoriOokami



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Recursive Fanfiction, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe, Summoning animals, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24413926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriOokami/pseuds/MidoriOokami
Summary: In a universe where the Sika Tribe told Shikako "No." Shikako finds another way.
Comments: 91
Kudos: 676
Collections: Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection, SQ74's Naruto Favs





	1. Shikako

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off of Silver Queen's "Dreaming of Sunshine", if you haven't already read it, you should go read it right now. Hope everyone enjoys.

Dreaming of Sunshine: 108. Intelligence Division Arc: Chapter 107

_In the living room, there was a bookcase. She went to it, and plucked a scroll from an ornate holder – the kind that was more often used to display swords._

_"The deer keep their scroll of summoners to themselves so that not just anyone can sign it," she explained. "But when I started getting too old to call on them myself, we made this. It's a single use summoning. If they like you, they'll let you sign it. If they don't…" She shrugged._

_If they don't, you don't._

_We went back outside, because summoning a deer inside a house was just a bad plan all around._

_Sembei-baasan resituated herself in her rocking chair, while I moved away from the house to open space. I opened the scroll, reading the summoning sigils with interest – they were so different! – before biting my thumb with a chakra-sharp incisor and spreading blood along the center of it._

_"Summoning Jutsu!" I called, forcing chakra into it and pressing it down onto the ground._

_I felt the jutsu activate – a call that went through the world, not out or up or away but through, reaching to some other place. And then it doubled back, chakra rushing towards me like a train down the tracks._

_I tried not to flinch back._

_Chakra smoke exploded beneath my hands, obscuring the seal for a moment, and a deer unfolded out of it, rising taller and taller to reveal a huge towering beast, the largest I'd ever seen. I wasn't even as tall as his legs._

_He tossed his head, his spiked, metal tipped antlers dragging the white chakra smoke after them in twisting trails. He was clad in what looked like Samurai armour, plates along his neck and back, and a twisted oni mask overtop his head._

_"Who calls?!" He bellowed. The air shivered._

_Up on the deck, Sembei-baasan cackled. "Look at you, all dressed up for war. You old showoff," she said._

_His head swung around to look at her. "Sembei," he said, though much less loudly. "You look as old and frail as a mummified corpse."_

_Sembei-baasan tapped her cane on the deck, looking more animated than I'd ever seen her. "Come up here and say that, I dare you," she challenged._

_He stepped closer, a single stride taking him over to her. I hovered, indecisive – a fight would not go well. But he only lowered his gigantic head until it was resting against her chest. She wrapped her arms around it, working fingers under the mask to scratch with her nails._

_"I had not thought to see you again," he rumbled. "This is a glad meeting."_

_She cackled again. "The kids took some time to get their acts into gear," she admitted. "But what do you expect from Nara? Now stop acting like I'm back from the dead and go and greet your summoner."_

_She shoved him away. I doubted the force of her arms was enough to move him, really, but he accepted the moment, head rising and turning towards me._

_I swallowed. "Uh. Hi."_

_I consciously didn't bow, even though I wanted to. This was a bad time for cross cultural miscommunication – deer only lowered their heads like that when they were about to charge. I didn't expect I would survive a head-to-head contact with this one._

_"Greetings," he said. "I am Heijomaru, of the Sika tribe of the Deer. Do you wish to be our summoner, daughter of the forest?"_

_I nodded. "I do," I said. "I would very much like to work with you."_

* * * * *

His stare felt like a physical weight, boring into me. “You are a member of Sembei’s tribe?”, he questioned. 

“I am. My name is Shikako Nara.” I stood tall. 

He snorted and pawed the ground hard, gouging a thick line in Sembei’s backyard, his head tossed high in the air as he considered me. “You might be a Nara, but you are not a Deer. The Sika tribe cannot sign with you.” He decreed.

He turned back to Sembei, who had watched the proceedings with a blank face. “Sembei, I shall return with word of your health, I hope to see you again someday soon.” He struck the ground again summoning a small ornate scroll, likely another single use summoning scroll… and he was going to leave!

“Wait!” I cried, “Wait! Why? What do I lack, I…” and it didn’t really matter did it? I couldn’t change his mind, it was his choice, and I had been found lacking in some aspect. I wasn’t a _deer_ …

He examined me once more, “I believe that your chakra is not compatible to those of my tribe Deerstalker. We cannot help you.” And as fast as he had appeared, he was gone. 

I suppose, I had considered that they might not accept me, that had always been a possibility, but I had been so sure. I was a Nara, a member of the main family, and a fighter. Sembei had been a front line fighter during the war and I thought that the two of us would be similar enough…

“I am sorry that the outcome was not more positive Shikako-sama.” My head whipped towards Sembei, for a moment, I had forgotten she was there, witness to the whole affair. 

I shook my head, “Ah, thank you for your time Sembei-obaasan, this was always a possibility.” I bowed my head, feeling my body running more on auto pilot than anything. It had always been a possibility, but the sting of failure was still fresh, and a quick exit seemed best. 

I left the yard quickly after that.

Well, this changed my plans. But I still had options. The Nara had other summons, there was always the Owls…

My feet brought me straight to my front door, my hand already up and ready to open it so I could enter before I froze. I could sense Mom bustling around in the kitchen, Shikamaru laying on the engawa, probably playing Shoji by himself, at peace for the first time in days. 

Neither of them knew that I had gone off to sign with the Deer, but Mom would know something was wrong, and my very presence seemed to upset Shikamaru these days. I didn’t want to deal with the chaos I would bring to the house just by entering it. I turned around and walked away.

My feet guided me around the village for what felt like hours, while I thought. Summons were incredibly useful. In the future, Naruto would be the new toad sage, and Sasuke while not a sage, would be able to travel quickly and fight in unique ways with his hawk summons. I had my seals though, and so far, I had been able to make anything I put my mind to. This was a setback, but not catastrophic. 

“Shikako?” I turned, and there was Sasuke, standing at a produce stand, holding a tomato. 

“I’m sure the village is very thankful to you for keeping the tomato market so strong.” I teased, giving me the opportunity to watch him colour match his favourite food as he flushed. 

“What are you doing here?” He grumbled. Which I suppose was a fair question, I did have a habit of tracking him down for adventures, problem solving and venting, which now that I was thinking about it…

I shrugged, “Just going for a walk, but maybe you can help me.”

And there was the suspicious look I was so familiar with, “What happened? You want to head back to my apartment?” 

Yeah, I guess that was a fair question and I didn’t really want to talk about this in public, even though it wasn’t really sensitive information. 

“Yeah, but no rush, it’s not a life or death problem.” Just all my other problems were. This was honestly tiny in the grand scheme of things.

And by the deepening of Sasuke’s frown, he didn’t believe me either. He didn’t say anything to me after that, buying his tomatoes quickly and marching off towards his apartment. 

“It’s really nothing!” I tried to reassure, but that seemed to worry him more. “Oh come on, my problems can be small!”

He snorted.

“I mean it, you’re going to feel silly for overreacting.” I muttered. Honestly, he was such a worrywart. 

Before I knew it, we were in his apartment, me sitting on his couch while he put his groceries away and made tea. I sat in silence and watched the proceedings, let him stew for a minute longer so he would feel even more ridiculous over this whole thing.

He put the tea in front of me and sat down, watching me over the lip of his cup. I always seemed to end up here when I was in trouble, Sasuke a rock in turbulent waves for me to cling to for a moment before throwing myself back into the surf. It made sense for him to be suspicious, last time he had seen me upset had been right after I had just attacked him for sneaking up on me, and the time before that someone had just tried to kidnap me and I had blown a head off. Things were always blowing up in my face, this latest mess up was just internal, it only affected me, it just stung.

I took a drink, it was good tea, it always was.

I looked up, and now Sasuke looked really concerned. I had been quiet for too long. 

“Whatever you are thinking happened, it’s not what you think. I just tried something, and it didn’t work.” I put the cup down. It wasn’t an effective shield, even if I was using it as one. “Were you successful summoning the Hawks?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. 

“Yes.” Straight forward, he wasn’t going to be distracted from what he wanted. 

Yeah, of course he had been. My presence had changed many things, but it hadn’t changed the fact that he was an Uchiha, a real Uchiha. And I had failed, because even though I was a Nara, I wasn’t a _real_ Nara. I had never been. I was a pretender. And maybe that was the real problem I was having. I hadn’t thought of my past life in a long time. I am Shikako Nara. My brother was Shikamaru, my father Shikaku, and my mother Yoshino. I was theirs, and they were mine. But I wasn’t supposed to be here, and somehow, it felt like the Deer knew that. 

“Shikako?” Now he was sitting beside me. 

“It’s not a big deal. I’m just… upset is all. I tried to make a contract with the Deer, but the head summon rejected me, told me that I wasn’t a deer.” I said.

Sasuke stared me down, but I didn’t know what else to say, it really was that simple. We sat in silence, each of us thinking. Maybe Sasuke was thinking of a way to get me out of his house, he had been worried about me, and then the problem ended up not even being a real problem, I was just wasting both of our time. 

“...Was there a specific reason you wanted to have a summon?” He asked, and of course he wasn’t thinking of a way to get rid of me, Sasuke was a better person than that.

“Well, they’re useful, but I suppose that what I really wanted was to be able to learn more about natural chakra, I can sense it, but I can’t use it. It’s right there, just out of my reach. I know that Jiraiya is the Toad Sage and I guess I was hoping that the deer would help me become a sage too…” I could be great without them, it would just be so much harder, the battles were only going to become harder.

Sasuke leaned back and drank his cold tea, “Does it have to be the deer? Do the Nara have other summons?”

I nodded, “We do, there’s the Owls and the Bats, but the Bats already have an active summoner and the Owls aren’t front line fighters, they prefer to pair with established assassins.” But maybe the Owls would like me? I had killed already, my hands were bloody, would that be enough?

Sasuke nodded, “The Uchiha have some sealing scrolls, but I’m not sure where many of them are. The Cats might have accepted you, but with the death of… their last summoner, I’m not sure where the scroll may have ended up.” I had suspected that would be the case. Sasuke had had to do a lot of research before he had been able to locate the Hawk scroll.

“Thank you, Sasuke. I think I just needed to talk to someone.” There was really nothing to be done about it. 

He watched me quietly for a few more minutes, contemplating something. “I heard that Jiraiya reverse summoned himself to the Toads.” 

“He’s lucky it was the Toads he ended up with. Another summon may have killed him before he could make a case for himself.” I responded, not sure why I was debating this, I had, after all, already considered this option. 

“He was also reportedly quite young when he did the technique. It might be argued that an older, more experienced ninja would be better off than him.” Sasuke returned before taking his tea cup back into the kitchen. 

I stared at my cold tea. 

“It’s an A-rank technique. I could die.” I said before grabbing my cup and bringing it into the kitchen.

“You can feel Natural chakra, even without a summon, I imagine you will try to find a way to harness it, excuse me if having a summon to guide you makes me feel better.” He snorted, “Besides, you were already thinking of it.”

“Well you’re not wrong…” I muttered, this was the problem with close friends, they know entirely too much about you. I quickly cleaned the cup, looking out the window. There was still plenty of daylight left, I could do this now and be home by supper. “I’m going to go now, I’ll see you soon.” 

Sasuke grabbed me before I could walk more than two steps towards the door, my brain already spinning and my mind jumped ahead to possible outcomes. I could die. Was this selfish?

“I’m coming. I can’t go with you, but I’m coming to wherever it is that you are going to try this.” His voice was firm.

“Yeah, okay.” This was probably a good idea, the more brains to generate ideas the better. 

We went to one of the training grounds on the outskirts of the village, trying a technique like this wasn’t exactly illegal, but it was generally frowned about because the chance of a fatal failure was rather high. I’m not exactly sure if Sasuke knew the exact statistics, because he had been rather quick to suggest it, but I wasn’t going to fill him in either. He either knew, or he didn’t, and quite frankly it was probably better if he didn’t know the exact numbers. 

I did. 

There was over a 50% chance that I wouldn’t make it back. 

This was why summon jutsu’s were so uncommon, most ninja and ninja villages just couldn’t justify the risk. But in just a couple years time, Konoha would probably be at war again, the biggest war that the elemental nations had ever seen, and if that was the case, me mastering this natural chakra thing was going to be a must if I was going to have any sort of impact on the future. 

“I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to do this.” I had caught a quick glimpse of the scroll that Sembei-obaasan had to summon Heijomaru, but I wasn’t sure how useful that seal would be for reverse summoning myself to the summoning realm. 

“Do you think it would work if you just did a regular summon?” Sasuke suggested. 

It wasn’t a half bad idea. Without my chakra or blood or whatever element it was _not_ tied to an existing summon contract, the technique itself might just bring me where I needed to go. I didn’t want to over think this too much, Jiraiya had done this technique successfully as a child, and while he was a very impressive shinobi, I don’t think he was inventing seals to bring him to the summon realm as a child. 

The problem of course, was that I couldn’t exactly test the technique first. It was very all or nothing and I had no idea how this might backfire… Alright, that was a lie, backfiring may include explosions and/or death. This technique would probably (definitely) come down to luck. 

But despite the odds, I was feeling pretty calm. Konoha was already better off than it had the first time around. Sasuke was at least still here and we did have some sort of tentative alliance between Mist and Sand now as well. Konoha had allies, and I think that Sand had paired up with Konoha before because of Gaara and Naruto, but I’m pretty sure that Mist hadn’t been a close friend of Konoha…

Excuses. I was making excuses for failure. I was not going to fail here. I _wanted_ this. 

“Alright, well… guess I’ll catch you on the flip side.” I grinned and slammed my hand to the ground channeling my chakra just like I had felt it earlier, “Reverse Summoning Jutsu!”

A long time ago, in my last life, I had read all the Harry Potter books, and as I felt the pull on my chakra, a concentrated tug in my core… this was probably the closest thing to feeling what a portkey was. I was twisting, and there was no up, there was no down. There was only movement and chakra washing over me, freezing my breath in my lungs, and then impact. I hit the ground hard, I was only lucky that there seemed to be a thick layer of snow carpeting the ground to cushion my fall slightly. 

I pulled myself up, and looked at the land. It wasn’t too cold, the snow was very wet and melting creating small creeks that flowed down the mountainous landscape. Where it had fully melted, grey rock stood exposed to the elements, small lichen growths peppering their surface. I climbed on top of the snow, using chakra to try and keep my feet warm, and spun slowing, looking for any animal that might inhabit such a beautiful sparse place. The air was clean, but thin, I was up very high, and I could see on the horizon dark clouds moving in.

Movement.

I spun and stared at the rocks. Something had moved.

I let my senses extend, the shock of travelling from one plane to another having caused me to pull my senses in tight to myself, but now I could feel… 4 of them on the rocks, and without my ability to sense, I probably would never have noticed them.

“Hello, my name is Shikako Nara, I have come looking to create a partnership. If at all possible could you direct me to whoever is in charge?” Upfront and direct were probably my best bet. They knew I was here. And they knew why I had come. Saying anything else would just be a waste of everyone's time. 

A displacement of air was the only notice I got before something was jumping at my back. I quickly dropped to the ground and rolled away, instinct and reflexes saving my life once again, as I rolled quickly to my feet and withdrew a kunai.

What stood before me was easily the largest feline I had ever seen, white, with a long tail, and black spots dotting its thick coat. For the first time in a long time, I could see the threat, but I couldn’t sense it.

But it wasn’t attacking again, instead it gave a large yawn, advertising its fangs and pink tongue.

“Well, I suppose you are not completely incapable…” _He_ drawled lazily before sitting down to watch me with large yellow eyes. “A partnership? It’s been a long time since a human has tried to make contact with the Snow Leopard Pride in the Bao Mountains.” 

I kept silent. Unsure about what to say.

He continued to watch me carefully. “Follow me, our Matriarch will deal with you.”

I stepped carefully after him, keeping my senses open to attempt to subvert any more surprise attacks. 

I never would have thought my reverse summoning would bring me to the Snow Leopards.

We walked in a small, narrow valley, stepping on large rocks to keep our feet out of the snow-melt, while we continued to be stalked by the 4 initial signatures I had clocked. I still could not sense the large cat in front of me despite his relaxed body language. I knew he was still measuring me and could turn at a moment's notice. I could admit to myself that I was not confident in my ability to hold him off a second time, because I was steadily getting the impression that that first pounce had just been the most basic of tests. That if he had truly wanted to bring me to the ground it would have happened. 

He turned sharply and leapt straight up to an outcropping, delicately making his way up the side of the valley wall. I gathered myself and quickly followed. I had a feeling that if I lost him, he would not come back. 

We went all the way to the top and then skated down the shale on the other side into what looked more like a large crater that had turned into a meadow than a valley before he took off in a flat out sprint across the open space. I released my resistance seals and sprinted after him struggling to keep up. 

We cleared the distance quickly before he seemed to jump almost half way up the side of the crater before he completely disappeared in the rocks. I was lucky that I was only moments behind him otherwise I never would have seen the cave. 

Trusting that he wouldn’t bring me here just to kill me I launched myself after him into the dark. It was narrow, damp and cold. Frost had formed on the rocks, making for a desolate atmosphere, and the further I walked, the darker it got. I found myself gritting my teeth in anger, did he think that this would discourage me? I fired up one of my LED seals and pushed forward.

I walked for what felt like forever, skirting deep holes that seemed to have no bottoms, and ducking sharp spear-like formations from the walls and ceilings. Slippery, slimy rocks threatened to twist my ankles on every step or send me slipping to my doom. The only way was forward.

And my persistence paid off, because as I forced myself forward I realized that in the distance I could see a light, and where there was a light, there was an exit. 

I sped up and pushed myself out, only to come face to face with a cat even larger than the one that had led me into the cave. 

“So you are the human that ventured into our realm?” Her ice blue eyes watched me carefully. “State your name girl.”

“My name is Shikako Nara.” There was no doubt in my mind that this was who I had come to meet. This was the cat in charge.

“Nara? Interesting…” She flowed to her feet and walked towards me. And if I thought she was big laying down…. If I was lucky, I might come up to the bottom of her belly, she could eat me up whole in a single meal. “My name is Yue, Leader of the Bao Pride, the Last Snow Leopards to hold territory in all the summoning realms. It has been many years since the Snow Leopards have tied themselves to a human, why should we tie ourselves to you?” She approached closer and sniffed my hair.

“My name is Shikako Nara, I am a Special Jounin of Konoha…” I paused, what could I offer them? It was the question I had always wondered about when summoning contracts were made, why would these animals even bother with ninja’s at all, what did they get out of the exchange that made it worth risking their lives over? “...I can freely give you my partnership, but other than that, I don’t know what I have that would be useful to you.” Honesty had worked so far to keep me from being eaten. 

“Hmmm… Han Xin!” She called firmly and the leopard from before sprung up from where he had been laying on the rocks unnoticed to stand in front of Yue. “You interest me Shikako. Han Xin is our most accomplished tracker, if you can stay alive for, let's see… 6 hours, I’ll let you sign our contract, if you can’t, well, I suppose you won't be alive will you?”

My heart kicked into high gear. Something like this had always been a possibility. I would either pass their test, or die. “Yue-sama,” I called quickly as she went to lay down again, “am I allowed my weapons?” I needed to know what the rules were!

“Use whatever you wish, so long as you are alive at the end of the 6 hours I will honor the agreement.” And with that she started to clean her paws again and Han sprung into action launching himself across the rocks at me. 

I slammed down a flash seal, closed my eyes and set it off, watching the flash from behind my closed eyes and hearing the bang of the detonation, as well as the pained yell of several Leopards. 

I hadn’t sensed any of them, I wouldn’t be able to depend on my ability to find any of these cats, I would need to be out in the open if I was to have any chance of not dying before the 6 hours were up. I took off in a mad sprint up the side mountain rather than try to go through that damn cave again. I would go up and over and hopefully delay Han long enough to be able to set some traps in the meadow I had already sprinted through. 

I laid small explosives with every step not even bothering to look behind me to see if he was pursuing. I already knew he was quick, maybe dropping a boulder on his head would slow him down. I heard the touch blasts detonate and felt the loose stone rattle their way to the bottom. I could only hope all this noise and destruction wasn’t upsetting Yue-sama.

I was running so fast towards the top I felt like I was flying, but it was quickly becoming apparent why I had been led through a cave to get here in the first place. It was a very tall climb, and if I had thought the air had been thin where I had reverse summoned myself it had nothing on the thinness of the air I was currently breathing as I launched myself to the highest altitude I had ever been. 

I chanced a glance behind to see that Han was still following me, though at a distance. It appeared that my fall back of using explosives on top of explosives was just as effective here as it was in the non-summon realm (Earth?), but I also knew that the distance would mean nothing if I didn’t gain even more so that I could set traps and buy myself 6 hours of time. 

Han met my eyes and hissed, I set off another flash bang and listened to him yowl as his eyes were bombarded by my light. I had too many things to do, I didn’t plan on dying here. Not today.

I continued to race to the summit, ideas racing through my head. The first idea was not always the best idea. I could still go into my shadow state, I wouldn’t be able to hold it indefinitely, but it might make a good get away. Han was probably faster than me in a full out race, he was definitely stronger than me. But was he more sneaky? And more importantly, was he smarter? If I had learned anything from growing up with Shikamaru and my father, it was that you didn’t always have to be the strongest person in the room. It certainly helped, but a well thought out plan could bring an effortless victory.

I hit the summit, leaping monkey, and placed my strongest flashbang yet, focusing on making it bright, but not loud, I was going to ride this wave. 

“Hey! Didn’t realize you were so slow!” maybe not the most witty thing to say when drawing your opponents attention, but it did its job. 

Han looked up to me to yell at me, no doubt frustrated from have copious amounts of rocks dumped on his head in his vertical pursuit of me, and I let the flashbang go, simultaneously turning to shadow and riding the wave of light perpendicular to my original path, following the edge of the crater rather than going over the side like I had originally been aiming, and hid in the shadow of a large boulder some distance away, but close enough that I would hopefully be able to see where Han went next.

After the bright flash of my seal, everything was still. I couldn’t depend too much on my hearing due to the nature of my shadowness, but I could still see things fairly well, and so far, there was no movement. 

I’d hold my breath if I could. 

Han exploded over the summit, tears streaming from his eyes, I could hear his roar in a muted sense, but I could feel it in the vibration of the ground before he disappeared over the other side of the crater and was gone. 

Diversion tactic #1: Success.

I flowed along the rocks, jumping from shadow to shadow, before making my way slowly down the side I had just run up. Hopefully returning the way I had come, back towards the other Snow Leopards would be tricky enough to keep Han off my tail for quite some time. I didn’t need to beat him, just outlast him. 

__________________________

It had been at least 3 hours since I had lost Han, and I had traveled a fair amount of distance, moving in the opposite direction from where I had seen him run off too, before I had to admit defeat and revert back to my 3 dimensional body. 

I wasn’t exactly tired, but my head felt like it was splitting and it had started to become very difficult to focus on anything other than remaining a shadow. It was time to quit. Besides, I was pretty far away now, and had hopefully found a good place to lay low for a while. 

Man it had been a long day.

I quickly set up some rough traps, loading a couple of quick release spring traps with ground pepper and kunai (thank you hammer space!), before sitting down to drink some water. 

Half way done.

I closed my eyes and spread my awareness. There were some chakra signatures at the edge of my awareness, but none in my immediate vicinity that I could sense at least. I could feel my face twist into a frown. I had gotten used to always being able to sense people. I was so sensitive to chakra that it had been a long time since someone had been able to get close to me without me sensing that they were coming. Now, I was potentially surrounded by enemies. It was unnerving. 

Rocks clattering.

I looked up and to the side where I could see a small leopard crouched in the rocks watching me. It wasn’t Han, the body much too small.

“How did you get all the way over here?” She asked, cocking her head to the side watching me with careful eyes. 

I kept my mouth shut. If this contract went through, then I’d share, but not a moment sooner. 

“Eh, it doesn’t really matter does it?” She yawned, stretched her spine, tipped her head back and let out a roar disproportionate to her size.

Crap.

I had no idea how far away Han was, but he was on his way here now. I sprung to my feet. Did I leave, or did I stay? I had traps here, giving me the home field advantage in a way. Running _might_ buy me time, but I had no idea what direction Han would come from, I might be running headlong right into his waiting jaws. 

Fine. I would wait and see. 

“Oh~, not running? You sure that’s smart?” The small leopard grinned down at me. 

“Don’t know where he is. It’s more advantageous for me to stand my ground. What’s your name?” I replied, keeping my eyes peeling on my surroundings. I was hoping that Han would sacrifice stealth for speed so that I could at least see him coming when he decided to rip my face off. 

“Me? You can call me Bingqing.” She purred, looking more interested in me now, “Are you really from Konoha?” 

“I am. I was born there.” Still nothing I could see.

“Eh~, is it really in the middle of a forest?!” I chanced a glance over to Bingqing to see her standing up on all fours, wiggling in excitement.

“It is. Konoha is in the middle of a forest made up of Hashirama trees. They’re the biggest trees in the elemental nations.” Her enthusiasm was a little infectious. 

“How big!? How big!? As big as Yue-sama!?” At this point she was practically dancing on the rocks in excitement. 

“Much bigger!” I laughed, still keeping half my attention to carefully watch my surroundings, “The trees are so large that they tower over almost everything.”

“I want to see them! We don’t have any big trees here! Han says that compared to Konoha all we have is bushes!” 

So Han had seen Konoha had he? That was interesting. I don’t remember ever hearing about Snow Leopard summons before.

“If this all works out, I’ll bring you to Konoha and you can see the trees for yourself.” I answered. _If_ this all works out. I still had a lot of time to kill.

“Uwa! Really?! I’d be the best summon ever! I’m trained as a hunter so I’m good at everything!” Bingqing danced on the rocks, her paws barely making any sound at all.

“Good at everything are you?” I asked, feeling my mind sharpen. What were the Snow Leopards good at?

“Yes! I’m a tracker, and I’m good at hiding! I’m even a good warrior of the pride, Yue-sama said so herself! I’m also good at channeling chakra!” Channeling chakra? Like the slug summons?

“And is Han also a hunter?” I asked, keeping my voice calm.

“Han-sama is the lead hunter, he used to train with our last summoner, I never go to meet him though… But he was a Konoha nin too!” Bingo. That was important information, even if I wasn’t sure how to use it. 

“A Konoha nin?” I asked, hoping to keep her talking.

“Yeah! Han told me that our last summoner was super strong too! He was a very honorable man and was good at all the things that a Snow Leopard is good at! Han-sama told me that Yue-sama often joked that our last summoner was one of her kittens that had just learned how to walk on 2 legs instead of 4!” Bingqing grinned, “I’ve only heard stories though, that was a very long time ago… So I’m hoping you manage to pass this test, It can get very boring here and I want to see more of the world.” She sat down and started to groom her paws.

It wasn’t particularly useful information, but it was interesting. “Thank you for sharing that with me Bingqing.” 

Conversation died after that, so I sat down to stretch. I might as well get ready.

Another hour passed and I felt myself start to get hopeful. Maybe Han had been too far away to hear Bingqing? Maybe word had made it to him but he had run in the direction of that first meadow thinking that I had gone there and was too far away to get to me in time?

I waited, and waited, and waited. Every minute felt like an eternity. Every sound an enemy. 

The clock ticked down.

45 minutes left.

Lady Luck, smile upon me, I might just pull this off. 

I kept my senses sharp, focusing hard on the horizon looking for any movement. Han would be angry, but I didn’t know enough about him to know if he would be Stupid Angry or Calculating Angry. I would hope for the former, but plan for the latter. 

Movement. Fast!

That was definitely Han coming at me, I crouched quickly tying a scarf around my face. Wait… wait… wait… now! I used my kunai to cut the wire to one of my traps and got to watch Han dodge a hail of explosive shuriken only to run into a cloud of ground pepper. 

I didn’t know how effective the irritant would be against a Snow Leopard, but from fighting with Kiba and Akamaru, I knew that you could never underestimate the strength of a smell or powder on a sensitive nose. 

Han blasted through the cloud coming straight at me, I rolled to the side tossing my kunai at his flank, _distract,_ pulled another wire and sent more kunai and explosions fly throwing the whole area into absolute pandemonium, dust high in the air in think clouds, terrain moved, the loud sounds of explosions. Sometimes the only way to gain control of a situation was to throw the known elements out the window. Much like that first training situation I had with Ino and Choji, Team 7 was best at making things up on the fly and reacting.

And boy was I hoping that this would give me an advantage. 

I could hear Han snarling up a storm, and sneezing (pepper success), but he wasn’t out of the game. 

I pulled out one of my old storage seals and released the pillar of rock I had sealed in it (if there was one thing I had learned, it was to never underestimate the value of a well placed pillar of stone), and dashed up the side. I could already hear Hans claws raking up the pillar as he followed me. Big mistake. I set off the explosives I had been laying with my feet, no doubt giving Han flashbacks to chasing me up the side of a mountain as the pillar broke in half and huge hunks of rocks descended towards his head. 

I leapt high into the air and whipped my body around, quickly summoning the lightning sword and sending a bolt of lightning after Hans falling form. 

He dodged, but couldn’t avoid the attack entirely, before disappearing back into my cloud of destruction. 

My body followed after, disappearing into the cloud and I quickly put the sword back into Hammer Space, its purpose for the moment fulfilled, and triggered another trap setting off a whole hoard of new explosions. Fresh pepper fired into the air and I grinned behind my scarf, avoiding most of the dust and pepper in the air. 

Han… Han was not so lucky, going by the wheezing and sneezing I could hear.

 _“I’M GOING TO TEAR YOU APART!!!”_ and now he was very, very mad. Okay Shikako, this is what you wanted, Stupid Angry, just go with it. I breathed out slowly, stay calm, right now I controlled the playing field. 

He shot towards me, claws out, eyes streaming, nose running, and I whipped out my secret weapon, popping the lid off the small vile, and splashed the small amount of liquid right in his face, almost sneezing myself at the strong smell of peppermint oil that saturated the air, and slid under his pouncing body before taking off out of the cloud, sprinting as fast as I could back out towards the rest of the snow leopards, as I listened to Han scream behind me.

I couldn’t take sole credit for the idea. I worked with Inuzuka, I worked with their nin-dogs, but even more importantly, Kakashi Hatake was my sensei. Known as the man of 1000 jutsu, but also to a lesser degree, the man who partnered with nin-dogs. I had seen Pakkun track a trail days old, but I had also seen Pakkun get so turned around after getting a face full of well perfumed civilian woman that he reverse summoned himself because he was sneezing so hard he couldn’t stand, miserable and upset over the oder and unable to smell anything else.

And Pakkun hadn’t had his face doused in the stuff. 

I could hear Han pursuing me, but for the first time, I was quickly gaining distance. He was probably in too much pain from the sensory overload to run as fast as he wanted. 

40 minutes left.

I dashed forward. I wasn’t out of the woods yet. 

I chanced a glance behind, Han was further back than I had thought stumbling over the rocks and snow that made up his home, shaking his head and tripping over his own paws. With luck he wouldn’t be able to follow my scent trail. I took off in a zigzag pattern, dashing to my left in a completely new direction while sending a simple clone off to the right and another to continue straight. 

I watched Han pause in his stumbling chase out of the corner of my eye, taking in the three Shikako’s before shaking his head and sticking it into some snow, no doubt hoping that he could wash off some of the smell. 

It wouldn’t work. He would need either a lot of water, or some soap to break down the oil that was now caught in his fur. That peppermint oil was there to stay for a while. 

Now I just had to run out the clock, hopefully Han didn’t know any tricks for getting strong smells out of his fur. I will admit, it’s not something most ninja or ninken have to plan for as most enemies that throw any gases or powers throw poison, not strong smelling essential oils. I was pretty happy to be the exception to the rule.

As I jumped over rocks and dodged around shallow creeks I took in my surroundings. The terrain here was either flat, or sharp mountains, quickly jumping from one extreme to another. There was some vegetation, but it came in patches and was mostly mosses or lichen with the occasional sad looking bush. Other than the snow leopards themselves, I had to wonder what else lived here, if anything else did. I hadn’t seen any other animals. What did the leopards regularly hunt? I knew summons ate, I had caught Kakashi-sensei slipping his nin-dogs treats often enough to know that, but I wasn’t seeing anything here that would satisfy a hungry leopard.

Oh well, it didn’t matter right now, something for me to think about once I had finished this challenge. 

Han still wasn’t following me, so I decided to take a chance and hunker down behind some larger boulders. I hadn’t used too much chakra when fighting Han since I had managed to plan ahead enough to use mainly seals and traps rather than any real flashy jutsu, but all the sprinting was getting to me. 

I quickly set some more pepper traps, some spring release shuriken traps, and laid a couple of explosives, before I settled in to wait again. 

The waiting was probably the hardest part. I wanted to run, to fight, but that wasn’t the goal. There was nowhere to run to, the only person to fight was Han - who was stronger than me and not a person. The only thing to do was wait and let the clock tick down. 

My internal timer went off. 

6 hours.

Time was up and I was still alive.

“YES!” I jumped up and felt my face strain from the large grin that was taking up half my face. I did it!

I quickly took apart my traps, packing everything away before sprinting back to Yue-sama. 

The ground blurred beneath my feet, and I felt more like I was floating that running, sweet relief running through my veins. All that stress was going to be worth it.

There ahead of me, heading in the same direction, was a stumbling Han, with Bingqing standing a good way ahead of him, yelling something. I closed in on them. I wouldn’t get to close, but I was responsible for Han’s condition, and we would hopefully be partners, it wouldn’t do to leave him if he was really in trouble. 

Bingqing saw me coming and stopped.

“Hey…” This was awkward, “Han, you doing okay?”

Han did not look okay. His eyes were streaming and mostly closed, his nose was dripping, and drool was pouring out of his mouth in long strings. His ears were even pulled back, flat against his head.

He hissed.

“...Okay…” So not the most promising start, but he also hadn’t tried to attacked me, “I can help wash the worst of it off? I’ve got some water and soap, it should help break down the oil.”

He dropped down to the ground and wheezed, “Please.” 

Okay. Olive branch accepted. 

I grabbed my canteen and pulled some soap out of Hammer Space and got to work. It was pretty weird to be cleaning the face of a snow leopard, and Han looked pretty ridiculous with his face full of suds and definitely not happy, but the smell was already weaker, the scentless soap doing its job.

I rinsed out the first wash, and rubbed in more soap for a second go, “I just got your face right? Do I need to clean anywhere else?”

“I rubbed my front paws on my face.” He admitted and I went to work washing his paws as well. It was amazing what a small amount of oil could do. I wasn’t even sure why I had had essential oil stored away, it wasn’t like I had much cause to ever use it. I had probably accidentally dumped it in my Hammer Space when I had been loading a bunch of other things in there at once. 

“Do you think I should do a third wash?” I asked once I had rinsed the soap out again. 

Han shook himself, his eyes still squinting, but no longer streaming. “It should be fine now.” Before he quickly got to work running his tongue over his paws.

“We should get going, Yue-sama might get worried.” Bingqing said, fairly dancing on her paws.

My and Han nodded before we took off again. It was time to sign a contract.

Yue-sama stood when me and Han came into view, shaking out her thick fur, one of the leopards at her feet sprinting off into the cave I had first come through. 

“You’re still alive.” She grinned, eyeing me up before looking at Han, “...You smell… strange.” I almost laughed.

Han looked away and refused to answer. 

I walked up to Yue-sama and bowed my head. Yue-sama was no deer, and looking away was a sign of trust in cats. I wouldn’t have to worry about her taking this as a sign of me challenging her to a fight. 

“A deal is a deal Shikako-chan, the Snow Leopards of the Bao Mountains would be glad to partner with you.” I looked up and smiled up at Yue-sama. She was grinning at me, her eyes squinted looking pleased in the way only a cat can.

Another Leopard walked forward, a large scroll in its mouth, and placed it in front of me. 

I opened it with care. There were only a couple of names, but the name right before where I would write mine.... Tobirama Senju.

These were the Nidaime’s summons.

I took a deep breath and sliced my thumb open on a chakra sharp incisor and quickly wrote my name: Shikako Nara. 

“Reverse Summoning yourself to the summon realm is very risky.” My eyes jumped away from the scroll, my name right next to a _hokages_ , to Han. “Why take the chance?” He asked, grooming his face.

“I need to become stronger. I need to protect my friends and family. Having a summons to partner with would help with that goal.” I answered. I had already asked myself the same question.

“Yes, but you are a part of a clan,and are a skilled shinobi, surely your clan must have some scrolls for you to sign?” Han hummed relaxing onto the ground. 

“...I… I did try with the Sika Tribe. They refused me.” Was it rude to tell the Snow Leopards that they had been my second choice?

Yue-sama laughed, shaking her head, “I thought I smelled Heijomaru, it has been a long time.” She grinned at me and lowered her head so that her nose was level with my head, “Of course the deer would refuse you, little Hunter. You were meant for us.” My chest filled with relief, they weren’t mad. “Now let’s get you back home. Han, are you good to travel?” 

Han sprung up, looking much better, only his slightly watery eyes hinting at what I had done to him, “I am fine.”

Yue-sama nodded and looked back down to me, “Summon us often, and we will make you a strong member of the Pride. You are one of us now, and we will teach you everything we know, in return, show us the world and share your knowledge with us, daughter.”

I bowed deep, “Thank you, I will do my best to make you proud.”

Han brushed against me, his head level with my shoulder, “Brace yourself” and we were flying back to Konoha. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just keep thinking while reading Dreaming of Sunshine, that Shikako is a lot like Tobirama Senju, the parallels aren't really all that subtle, so it made me wonder what it would be like if the Sika Tribe had said no to her. I don't think Shikako would give up, she'd find another way, and then I thought, the Snow Leopards would probably like her. This smart, explosive happy, seal mistress, that runs fast. 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed. I'll probably add some more small chapters to this someday, but I'm not a very consistent writer, this only got done because I've been laid off cause of this Covid-19 pandemic and have nothing better to do. Stay safe everyone, and make smart choices, we're all in this together.
> 
> **Edit**
> 
> Hi everyone, I never imagined getting such a response to this thank you so all much! You have all inspired me to write more, so I have about 4 more chapters for this in the works (all partially done) so please stay tuned for more! Thanks again! <3


	2. Sasuke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke waits.

Sasuke paced. And paced. And paced.

How did this happen? This was supposed to be his day off. He was supposed to go to the market and get some groceries. He was _not_ supposed to kill his teammate by suggesting she attempt an A-rank jutsu unsupervised. Summoning was just a fancy seal that formed a contract, Shikako was a _seal master_ , even if she repeatedly denied it. She wasn’t supposed to be gone this long. But what if this was normal? Maybe it took longer when it was a human being transported. Maybe she ended up with an animal that didn’t already have a contract and she had to make one? Maybe she blew something up and had to make it up to them?

She probably blew something up.

He ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. “Okay. This is just Team 7 luck. Everything is fine.” Saying the words out loud did not make everything suddenly fine. He was still worried and feeling useless. He bit his thumb and slammed his hand on the ground, “Summoning Jutsu!” 

“Sasuke-sama!” cried a large red tailed hawk.

“How long does it take for a summoning animal to establish a contract?” He asked.

The bird squawked and ruffled its feathers making it look twice as big, and twisted its head at him, giving him a look he had quickly become familiar with as the bird form of ‘are you stupid?’

“Shikako reverse summoned herself to form a contract, she’s been gone for over 2 hours, how long does it take to form the contract?” He asked.

“It depends on where she ended up. Could take a couple of minutes, could take a couple of weeks. Some summons want to test potential summoners before they sign a contract.” The bird flapped its wings and jumped up to a low hanging branch, looking down at Sasuke, flexing its talons on the branch scraping away bark, “She could also be dead, lot’s of animals don’t want to make a contract.”

“I’m getting sensei.” Sasuke turned, and took off. Shikako was _fine._ She probably just blew something up, that’s _all._

Was Sensei even in the village? He slammed into Kakashi-sensei’s front door with none of his usual grace and started to pound on the door, extended his limited senses to see if Kakashi was even in the apartment or if he was just pissing off all of Sensei’s neighbours with the racket he was making. 

He couldn’t sense anything. 

Sasuke would be the first to admit that he wasn’t a sensor. His genin teammate was a sensor, and one of the best in the village, so he wasn’t about to delude himself over his ability, but at this range, if Kakashi-sensei was in his apartment, even Sasuke should have been able to sense it. 

So empty apartment.

He took off again, his summon flying high in the air after him, hopefully also keeping an eye out for Kakashi-sensei. Haneko wasn’t the best at tracking, or even spotting things, but she was his most chatty summon and was small enough that the chakra drain wasn’t too bad. If he wanted straight answers, she was always his best bet. Even if she looked at him like he was an idiot half the time.

The memorial stone came into view quickly, but Sasuke could already tell that Kakashi wasn’t there either. 

His vision spun for a moment. Kakashi-sensei was supposed to still be in the village last Sasuke had checked, and he didn’t really want to involve anyone else in this mess. 

Shikako had probably just blown something up. She was _fine._ He was _overreacting._

He sprinted for the Hokage tower. Something generally frowned upon by other ninja, as nothing good ever came from sprinting in the direction of the Hokage Tower, but Sasuke had never been one to care about what other people think.

He leapt through a window and almost crashed right into Asuma-sensei.

“Sasuke!” His hands had flown up as if to ward off an attack and his eyes were wide, “What’s going on?!” Yeah maybe sprinting into the Hokage Tower wasn’t the best decision. 

“I’m looking for Kakashi-sensei.” He needed to keep calm. Since Shikako was _fine,_ she would be angry with him if he clued Asuma into there being a problem, and if Asuma suspected something, then Shikamaru would suspect something, and then Sasuke could end up very dead when Shikamaru inevitably found out that he was the one who suggested the whole thing in the first place. 

He was an ANBU. He could play it cool.

“Kakashi? He’s not here, it’s his day off, you checked the memorial stone?” As if that wasn’t one of the first places he had checked. “What happened?” and now Asuma was looking concerned. 

Abort! Abort!

“I just had a question for him.” He answered. He needed to keep calm until he had proof he should be panicking. “I need to go. Thank you.” And back out the window he jumped. Maybe he was shopping today? If he wasn’t in the market, then Sasuke would have to move onto plan B. (Even if he didn’t know what that was yet.)

He dashed towards the market. 

Sometimes he regretted ever having Shikako as a friend. As much as Team 7 was a natural danger magnet, Shikako always seemed to magnify the effects. She was also the only one on the team to have died multiple times. It was not good for his stress level. At this rate, Sasuke was sure he would have gray hairs by the time he was 16. Or ulcers. Maybe both.

But while Shikako had officially died a couple of times, she also always came back. It took a lot to knock her down for the count. Which was why Sasuke had to believe that she was fine. If an army could not take her down… If having her chakra shut off didn’t slow her down… If a _god_ could not keep her, no summon would be able to kill her.

He took a deep breath and jumped over alleys scanning the streets for white hair. 

And there, white hair, orange book, lazy stroll. Plan B was not necessary.

He leaped down and landed neatly in front of his sensei. 

“Sasuke. Fancy seeing you here.” 

“Sensei… there may be a problem.”

Kakashi’s book snapped shut and his eye focused intently on Sasuke’s face. “Should we take this conversation to my apartment?” He asked.

“Maybe the training field?” How did he explain this? Shikako was fine. He was just concerned.

Sensei gestured and Sasuke took off back to the training field. Maybe Shikako was already back? Then he would really look like a fool, rushing all over the village like he had, getting sensei involved…

The field was empty.

“...Sasuke? What’s going on?” Sensei was scanning the field, but there was nothing there to see.

“Shikako reverse summoned herself to the summoning realm. She performed the jutsu in this field. It has now been 3 and a half hours since she has been gone.” The pertinent details. 

“She reverse summoned herself? She is with the Deer?” Sensei asked. And how did he know that Shikako was going to try and sign on with the Deer? Sasuke hadn’t known she had even wanted to sign with a summon until they were drinking tea earlier today.

“Not with the Deer… they turned her down.” Kakashi’s face spasmed. 

“So she just reverse summoned herself to the summoning realm to find a contract?” ah, Sensei’s voice was doing that thing where Sasuke knew he was trying to remain calm, but was also on the edge of _something._ Sasuke could never figure out if that something was anger or panic. “And why were you involved?”

“... I may have suggested it.” 

“Okay. Let’s not panic yet.” Sensei sighed and quickly bit his thumb and dropped down to perform his own summoning. 

“Yo.” The little pug greeted, looking up at his summoner. 

“It seems one of my cute students is looking for a summoning contract. She performed the technique here. Think you can sniff anything out?” 

Well at least Sasuke didn’t think he was being so foolish for being _concerned_ , if Kakashi-sensei was worried enough to get his own summons involved. 

Pakkun huffed out a breath and put his nose to the ground walking all over the field trying to pick up a trace. “I smell… spring thaw. But it’s not familiar, I don’t know where she might have ended up.” He reported after a few minutes of pacing. 

“Well it was worth a try.” Sensei sighed. “We’ll wait until the evening before we go to the hokage and let Shikaku-sama know. Sometimes these things can take weeks.” His words were comforting, but his chakra was a tightly knit ball, and his eye had never truly relaxed it’s focused stare. 

Fuck.

Pakkun dismissed himself and then it was just Sensei, Sasuke and Haneko who had perched herself in one of the nearby trees. 

And then they settled in to wait.

Neither he nor Sensei were big talkers, so the silence dragged out. Sometimes the quiet was nice, but it was times like this that Sasuke really missed Naruto. He was a goof and didn’t always know what was going on, but he at least knew how to break a tense silence, and the silence in this field was so thick that Sasuke swore he could cut it with his sword. 

The sun continued its journey across the sky and Sasuke felt cold and hot by turns. His hands clammy while he waited, and pressure behind his eyes. The sun began its descent and the pit that had gradually been forming in his stomach turned to lead, threatening to drag him down. 

And then, a cloud. Movement. 

Sasuke saw Shikako fall, smacking her face into the dirt, shouted “Shikako!”, caught a glimpse of a _huge_ cat right before it pounced right on top of Shikako causing her to let out an awful wheezing cry, and his legs started moving to attack.

“Uchiha! Skulking around! Why are you here?!” Snarled the beast, fangs bared, claws thankfully digging into the dirt and not Shikako’s head.

He pulled a kunai. This was his day off! He wasn’t supposed to be battling a cat! He was going to kill Shikako when this was all over!

“No…” Shikako gasped, “That’s Sasuke, he’s a f-friend!” She tried to crawl up on her hands and knees, but the cat laid on her and mashed her face into the dirt again, letting out a hiss. “Han!” She yelled, clearly getting air back into her lungs, “That’s my teammate, no eating Sasuke!”

 _Han_ snorted and stood up walking a few feet away before laying down and starting to clean his fur. 

Sensei straightened up, his one eye wide as he glanced from the cat to Shikako. 

“Hey Sasuke… Sensei” She groaned, and crawled to her feet, “Meet Han Xin, Han, this is my teammate Sasuke Uchiha, and my sensei Kakashi Hatake.”

“Very nice to meet you.” Slipped out of Sasuke’s mouth before he could stop it. He was going to kill her. Slowly.

“Likewise.” Han said. 

He glared at Shikako, she had better tell him what was going on. The cat hissed again, and he almost snarled back. His mother’s ninneko hadn’t always been the nicest, but they were at least small, not as large as a full gown Inuzuka nindog. 

She chuckled, “Well, I signed with the Snow Leopards.” She shrugged. He stared her down. He needed more information than that! “I’m sorry it took so long, I had to evade Han for 6 hours so I could sign the contract, but it’s all good now! Why is Sensei here?” 

Bullshit. “So you played hide and seek for 6 hours?” Like hell that was all that happened. She was covered in dirt and small cuts. “Sensei was here because I was concerned about how long you had been gone.”

“Well, we fought a little, but mostly I just ran a lot. It’s really okay.” He sighed, he wasn’t going to get anything else was he. 

“What a little monster my cute student is to sign with the Leopards.” Sensei had his book out again and was looking very pleased now that the waiting and the excitement was over. “You’re going to have to fill out some paperwork at the tower registering this.” 

Shikako groaned, “Don’t remind me.” Finally getting to her feet. “Hey Han, thanks for bringing me back.”

The large cat huffed and walked back over to her. “I will be heading back to the Bao Mountains now. Summon us often. Visit us often. If you are to be a proper member of the Pride, you must train.” And then he was gone, not even a puff of chakra to note his disappearance. 

“Sorry for worrying you.” Shikako was looking at both Sasuke and Sensei now. “I would have told you what was going on if I could, but I just landed there and then was being told that if I wanted them to partner with me, I would have to stay alive for 6 hours.”

....And she had undoubtedly blown something up in that time period as well. Sasuke was feeling awfully vindicated. Shikako couldn’t go anywhere without blowing something up. He _knew_ it.

“While this has been terribly exciting, I’m afraid I must be going.” And then sensei was gone in a puff of smoke. 

“I really would have told you if I could.” Shikako said. Her large brown eyes staring at him. He must look more angry than he thought. Good.

“Hn.” He looked away. Next time he was going with her. They were a team. They should have figured out how to go together in the first place. 

“Sasuke?...” he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “Thanks, you were right.” Of course he was. She smiled at him, and her whole body language from this morning was different. Gone was the stress and the sadness, and while Shikako never really looked truly happy, she at least looked content and back to her normal self. 

“Hn.” Troublesome teammates. 

“I’m going to go register this at the tower, but I’ll see you tomorrow okay?” He looked away. She had better come see him tomorrow. They could spar and practice summoning together.

And then she was gone. Strolling out of the field like this was something that she did everyday. And well… maybe they didn’t go on 6 hour summoning animal quests everyday, but was this really different from anything else that Team 7 put their hands on?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here is chapter 2. I am not as happy with it as chapter 1. Please let me know if you seen any errors, I did some editing, but it finally reached the point where I just wanted it out. Anyways thanks for all the wonderful comments on the last chapter! I read every single one and they all made me smile, I'm glad a whole bunch of you enjoyed my little addition to the 'Dreaming of Sunshine-verse'. Got a couple more chapters planned with this, but I'm very slow at putting it down onto paper so please bare with me.
> 
> Thanks again and everyone stay safe out there and wash your hands!
> 
> Also if you haven't checked it out, there is another fic based on this one called Aurora by Bloodless_Recital, it's really good so go check it out and send them your love too!


	3. Tsunade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsunade gets a headache.

One of the first things that Tsunade had learned once she had become hokage was that it was just like any other job. Of course there was arguably more responsibility being hokage than when she was head of the hospital (arguably), but she still tried to keep to a schedule with 3 meals a day, a decent night's sleep when she could (this wasn’t always possible, but it hadn’t been when she was in charge of the hospital either so no big loss), and scheduled work hours so people could find her if they needed her.

All in all, a job. If not a very busy one.

During the night she could count on the night clerk to organize any paperwork that needed her immediate perusal in the morning and leave it on her desk, and so she knew to expect a stack of paperwork everyday along with her 1st (or 10th, who really keeps track?) cup of tea, ready for her to start her day.

A routine.

Which is why, she knew immediately that something had happened last night when she walked into her office. 

There on her desk, was one neat pile of paperwork to be seen to, and beside it, but very clearly separate, was another much smaller stack of paperwork.

This reeked of Team 7.

There were many things that stayed consistent in Konoha. Jiraiya would always be a pervert. Gai would always wear green. Kakashi would always be late. And Team 7’s paperwork would always be handled separately and treated as a biohazardous object. It would only make contact with one desk person, and it would never touch any missions that were in progress because her desk ninja had nothing better to do than believe that there was definitely a contagious factor to Team 7 FUBAR luck. The fact that it was sitting openly on her desk and not sealed away under Ofuda was a miracle. She would give the bureaucratic ninja more grief, if it weren’t for her intimate knowledge of all the ways a mission handed over to Team 7 could go wrong. 

“Fuck. I need sake.” There went her nice morning. They were all in village (other than Naruto), what could they have gotten up to?! Tsunade's hands came up and started to massage her temples, she could feel an impending Team 7 migraine. “Right. Better just see what the damage is.” 

She sat down in her chair, pulled out her emergency bottle of sake and preemptively poured herself a glass before even looking at the paperwork. She braced herself and looked down.

_Shikako Nara_

Of course? Who else would be creating more work for the already very busy Hokage other than Shikako Nara? 

Tsunade picked up the paperwork. It was a summoning registration form, nothing atypical about it. Tsunade had honestly expected Shikako to sign with the Deer long ago, afterall, Tsunade wasn’t so young as to forget what a formidable team Sembei Nara and the Sika Tribe had made on the battlefield and Shikako was very clearly a front line fighter. Kakashi had his Dogs, Naruto had his Toads, Sasuke his Hawks, and Shikako had the Deer. She had probably felt left out with all her other teammates having summons. This would only feed the rumors that Kakashi’s team was the second coming of the Sannin.

Tsunade grabbed her stamp to file away the form into the abyss that was intelligence, when a filled out section of the paperwork caught her eye. A section that was almost always blank.

_Registration of Non-Existent Contract: Bao Snow Leopard Pride_

_Brief Description of Summons and Relevant Information: The last Snow Leopard Pride, located in the Bao Mountains. Yue-sama is the current leader of the Pride. I was allowed to sign the contract after undergoing a 6 hour survival trial. Previous summoner of the Snow Leopards was Tobirama Senju._

Tsunade choked. She slammed the paperwork down and wheezed. Tobirama-Oji’s Summons!? 

Tsunade couldn’t remember much about the summons, other than they had been soft and had doted upon her uncle. She had only ever seen them practicing in the training field on occasion, but she could remember them being as fast as her Uncle. Her Uncle who had been a seal master, a sensor, and had wielded the legendary thunder sword. 

...In hindsight, it almost seemed inevitable that Shikako ended up signing with the Snow Leopards. 

But an ex-hokage summons… and these particular summons… 

Tsunade remembered that when Tobi-Oji had died, the council had been particularly mad about losing the Leopard summons. Tobi-Oji had never passed the contract down, or even had an official apprentice despite having 6 students. It had been lost with his death. That it was now back in Konoha’s hands... It was going to be impossible to keep this a secret. The council was going to lose their collective head over this. Danzo especially would be bitter about this whole affair. 

She knocked back her sake.

For a team with the Last Uchiha, the Kyuubi Jinchūriki, and the Last Hatake, Shikako was certainly not being overshadowed by her teammates. There were going to be a lot more eyes on her now, Tsunade only hoped Shikako would be up to the scrutiny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was short, but I felt like Tsunade had something to say about all this nonsense.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed! I'm thinking the next chapter will probably be Shikako's family finding out, but that is such a complicated relationship that it will probably take me a while to write. 
> 
> As always, if you catch any errors, please let me know so that I can fix them!


End file.
